Two week before "A" race and bike legs need help! - Triathlon Week

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

Hello,

Well I had a decent (sprint) race yesterday - finishing 16 out
257(actual finishers) and 4th in my age group (just missing the 3rd
place medal by 7 seconds).

I have been "training through" this race in hopes of using it to
prepare for the New England Olympic Distance Championship in 2 weeks.

Looking at my overall placement in split times, it's obvious where the
improvement needs to be:
27th out of the water, 41st off the bike, 19th on the run.

I can't blame it on the transitions this time - I nailed them. The
swim is not a major issues as I was about 7th in my wave. I beat my
goal-time on the run which is way cool - but the bike - man - no
matter what Lance says - IT'S ABOUT THE BIKE.

Of the top 16, the bike is the only event where everyone beat me.

So now - what to do? My instinct is to put a lot of miles on this
week, and then taper back to just commuter miles (9 round trip) for
the week leading up to the race.

My book (Swim, Bike, Run) suggests that I focus on speed work - not so
much for long miles.

Of course I realize that I can't cram for this race, but surely there
can be some sort of training that will help me feel less sluggish.
Maybe focus on swim/bike bricks? Or maybe during the race I should
keep the first 5 miles at high cadence - like 100-105, instead of the
92-97 that I maintained.

What are you thoughts and suggestions?

Thanks!
CF

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

> CF
>

With some time for taper, at this point probably to late from a training
prospective to make much of a difference. My thought has to do with you
exceeding your goal on the run. That's great but are you "saving up" for
the run? Maybe even a little subconsiously?
Van

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

epson <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message news:<Xns9546E29617BDAvanlew@24.25.9.41>...
> > CF
> >
>
> With some time for taper, at this point probably to late from a training
> prospective to make much of a difference. My thought has to do with you
> exceeding your goal on the run. That's great but are you "saving up" for
> the run? Maybe even a little subconsiously?
> Van

Thanks for the feedback. Yes - potentially I was 'saving up' for the
run - but I doubt it. It's not so much the actual speed as it was the
"feeling". After thinking about this further I realized that despite
being spanked, it was one of my best efforts (time-wise) in a
triathlon. My legs just didn't feel fresh. This naturally carried
over to the run - I never felt like I could really "dig deep" to get
the speed I wanted. I had a competetor 100 yrds in front of me the
whole time and I could never get myself to attack until the last 1/4
mile.

Maybe it has more to do with "training through" the race and not
purposefully tapering as I will be doing for my next race.

-CF

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (ChronoFish) wrote in message news:<9544e856.0408161035.326e1210@posting.google. com>...
> epson <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message news:<Xns9546E29617BDAvanlew@24.25.9.41>...
> > > CF
> > >
> >
> > With some time for taper, at this point probably to late from a training
> > prospective to make much of a difference. My thought has to do with you
> > exceeding your goal on the run. That's great but are you "saving up" for
> > the run? Maybe even a little subconsiously?
> > Van
>
> Thanks for the feedback. Yes - potentially I was 'saving up' for the
> run - but I doubt it. It's not so much the actual speed as it was the
> "feeling". After thinking about this further I realized that despite
> being spanked, it was one of my best efforts (time-wise) in a
> triathlon. My legs just didn't feel fresh. This naturally carried
> over to the run - I never felt like I could really "dig deep" to get
> the speed I wanted. I had a competetor 100 yrds in front of me the
> whole time and I could never get myself to attack until the last 1/4
> mile.
>
> Maybe it has more to do with "training through" the race and not
> purposefully tapering as I will be doing for my next race.
>
> -CF

You know that biking hurts, right? When you train, do you hurt, or
stay in a comfort zone? Do you train with a heart rate monitor?

08-23-2004, 07:09 PM

"Ironic" <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]> wrote in message
news:38f527b7.0408161653.43a58793@posting.google.c om...
> [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] (ChronoFish) wrote in message

> > Thanks for the feedback. Yes - potentially I was
'saving up' for the
> > run - but I doubt it. It's not so much the actual speed
as it was the
> > "feeling". After thinking about this further I realized
that despite
> > being spanked, it was one of my best efforts (time-wise)
in a
> > triathlon. My legs just didn't feel fresh. This
naturally carried
> > over to the run - I never felt like I could really "dig
deep" to get
> > the speed I wanted. I had a competetor 100 yrds in
front of me the
> > whole time and I could never get myself to attack until
the last 1/4
> > mile.
> >
> > Maybe it has more to do with "training through" the race
and not
> > purposefully tapering as I will be doing for my next
race.
> >
> > -CF
>
> You know that biking hurts, right? When you train, do you
hurt, or
> stay in a comfort zone? Do you train with a heart rate
monitor?

(I apologize if this is a re-post)

Well yes. When I time trial I hurt. When I push a climb I
hurt. And when I do sprint intervals - they tend to be a
bit uncomfortable.

But I confess that I do spend most of my time in a comfort
zone. I do wear a HR monitor and my max HR on the bike is
quite a bit lower than my
max on the run. In race conditions my bike tends to stay a
good 5 beats lower than my run.

As an example for the race in question my HR on the bike was
about 164 and the run was closer to 169.

This was actually lower than my "hard" running workouts
which keeps my HR at about 172 . My max observed HR is 182
which means I'm operating at about the
92%-95% HR zone.

-CF